Shipping

Will Drop-Shipping Still Be a Viable Business Model in 2020?
January 8, 2020 at 3:05 pm

For many years, drop-shipping was touted as the best possible business model for online entrepreneurs who wanted to start lucrative, yet lean businesses from the convenience of their own homes. But with so much saturation, is it still a profitable idea? What is Drop-Shipping? According to Shopify, โ€œdrop-shipping is a retail fulfillment method where aโ€ฆ

How to Make Free Shipping Profitable, Part 1
January 8, 2020 at 2:42 pm

Free and fast shipping is the name of the game now. It has become a table stakes to satisfy your online customers. While shipping may be free for the customer, merchants have to absorb the costs. But the question remains: How can you do it profitably? We've put together the ultimate collection of strategies andโ€ฆ

2020 Retail Outlook: Free and Fast Shipping Will Go Hand-in-Hand
January 6, 2020 at 11:12 am

For years, online shoppers prioritized free shipping over fast delivery by a wide margin. High shipping costs were a top cause of abandoned online shopping carts, and consumers would add items to their carts to qualify for free shipping thresholds. Today, โ€œfreeโ€ still trumps โ€œfast,โ€ as more than half of shoppers say free shipping isโ€ฆ

UPS vs. FedEx: A Comparison of On-Time Delivery Performance in Peak Week
December 27, 2019 at 11:09 am

Mixed messages in week 50. FedEx dropped to 81.3 percent while UPS rebounded to 93 percent. FedExโ€™s percentage is based off a smaller sample size due to how they invoice but it does provide credence into Amazonโ€™s decision to pull FedExโ€ฆ

UPS vs. FedEx: A Comparison of On-Time Delivery Performance This Holiday Season
December 19, 2019 at 10:29 am

For week 49, on-time performance from both UPS and FedEx dropped significantly. FedEx is at 91 percent, while UPS is at 87.5 percent, compared to a 95 percent-plus rate in week 48 for both carriers. This should come as no surprise since week 49 is the first inclusion of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shipments.โ€ฆ

Amazon Blocks Sellers From Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments
December 17, 2019 at 10:51 am

Amazon.com is blocking its third-party sellers from using FedEx's ground delivery network for Prime shipments, citing a decline in performance heading into the final stretch of the holiday shopping season. The ban on using FedExโ€™s Ground and Home services starts this week and will last โ€œuntil the delivery performance of these ship methods improves,โ€ accordingโ€ฆ

Redefining the โ€˜Fโ€™ Word: Do Shoppers Want Fast or Free Shipping?
December 12, 2019 at 12:45 pm

As we enter the home stretch of the holiday season, should small to midsize businesses (SMBs) even try to compete with one-to-two-day delivery times? According to a new study from ShipStation, thereโ€™s still hope to win shoppers over โ€” even if retailers canโ€™t afford speedy deliveries (and it doesnโ€™t require a Christmas miracle). Shipping Cost Outweighs Everything,โ€ฆ

Prime Day Lessons Retailers Can Apply to Their Holiday Shipping Plans
December 5, 2019 at 2:24 pm

This holiday season itโ€™s all about fast and free shipping of online orders. Therefore, in an exclusive interview with Total Retail, Carson Krieg, co-founder and director of carrier operations at Convey, Inc., discusses the lessons from Amazon Prime Day that merchants can apply to the upcoming holiday peak season. Carson Krieg,โ€ฆ

UPS Quietly Announces 2020 General Rate Increase
November 20, 2019 at 10:42 am

Effective Dec. 29, 2019, UPS Ground, UPS Air and International services rates will increase by an average of 4.9 percent. Keep in mind that there's often a discrepancy between the announced increase and the effect the increase has on individual shippers. Our team at Shipware will perform a detailed analysis of the announced increases over theโ€ฆ

Why So Many E-Commerce Providers Are Building Their Own Fulfillment Networks
November 18, 2019 at 12:41 pm

When Amazon.com first introduced its โ€œFulfillment by Amazonโ€ (FBA) program in 2006, it was impossible to know whether the online retailer fully recognized the growth prospects of the market it was walking into. Ironically, Amazonโ€™s owner, Jeff Bezos, has joked about the difficulties of packing and shipping orders from his home-office during Amazonโ€™s early years.โ€ฆ